In well drilling applications, wells are typically drilled based upon a predetermined well plan that defines the well survey and drilling parameters. The determination of a well plan for a proposed well is typically based upon a variety of information, such as, geological surveys at or nearby the proposed well, recorded physical attributes of completed offset wells nearby the proposed well, and other sources of geological information. Based upon this information, a well plan for the proposed well can be generated to optimize desired drilling attributes, such as, bit wear, rate of penetration, and drilling time.
A common step in the generation of the well plan is the prediction of the physical attributes of the proposed well. This task is typically achieved by: correlating the predicted formation tops that are expected to be encountered in the drilling of the proposed well to the formation tops that were encountered during the drilling of completed offset wells nearby the proposed well; selecting the physical attributes associated with highly correlated portions of the formation tops of the offset wells, and predicting the physical attributes of the proposed well as a function of the selected physical attributes.
This process is typically non-intuitive, time intensive and prone to errors. Further, once a step in the process has been completed, any change to the criteria used for the step typically requires extensive and time-consuming re-calculations.